Sunday, May 18, 2008

I saw this recipe over at Pinch My Salt and thought, "Hey, I like hummus!" followed by "I think I'll try this." And the rest is happy hummus history.

It's basically hummus in soup form and just like Pinch My Salt claims, the soup is so fast and easy it takes only about 15 minutes to have it on the table and ready to tempt your taste buds.

High in fiber, low in fat, high on taste and great with a side of homemade pita it got enthusiastic thumbs up from all six of us. How often do you hear that?

I've tweaked the recipe just a little bit so I'm linking to the original but publishing my own version. Mine makes 6-8 servings while the original is a much smaller batch, has a little more heat but less spice.

Dump the cans of garbanzo beans, liquid and all, into a food processor or blender and puree until the beans are as smooth as possible. It won't be perfectly smooth and that's okay. Meanwhile, saute the minced garlic in the olive oil until it starts to brown then add the garbanzo bean puree to the pot. Add the ginger, coriander, cumin and broth--you can certainly use fresh grated ginger but when I threw this together I realized I was out of the fresh stuff and only had ground ginger. It worked. You can make the soup as thick or as thin as you want by adding more broth or water to the soup at this point. I also threw in some leftover rosemary and honey glazed leg of lamb that we'd had the night before which made the soup--well, more meaty. You could use another meat or just leave out the meat for a nice vegan dish.

Simmer the soup for ten minutes to let the spices sink in, more if you have the time. Season with the salt and pepper then top with freshly chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice for emphasis.

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Today's the last day to enter the Write-Away Contest--you have until midnight to get those entries in!

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Has everyone seen Iron Man? Andrew and I saw a preview for it months ago and I laughed out loud it looked so stupid (sorry). Yes, stupid--kind of like a bad Transformers knockoff (not that the original was really worth duplicating).

But then I kept hearing how great it was and how it was getting five-star reviews and it tempted my curiosity a bit. I love a good movie and Friday night Andrew and I were feeling downright reckless so we caught a late showing. At 9 o'clock! We're living on the edge I tell you, what next--a midnight show?

I gotta say it lives up to the reviews--it was a solid A movie, loved every minute of it.

The casting was perfect, I especially loved the chemistry between Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) and Robert Downey, Jr. (Tony Stark) who have a modern Bond-Moneypenny thing going.

There's enough laughs to keep it from taking itself too seriously, Pepper wears smashing black dresses in all her scenes and Robert Downey, Jr. seems rather in his element as the playboy looking for a cause. It was a tad predictable but the whole movie was just cool. No other word to describe. Next to Batman Begins it's probably my favorite superhero movie ever--though Spiderman II was pretty good. This was better. And cooler. Just cool. Did I mention it was cool? Worth every penny of $19.50.

Oh and don't forget to stay to the very end after the credits--you'll get the set up for the sequel.

I've just made some hummus with frozen chickpeas (now there's a great idea) and, as always made far too much for the two of us, so this recipe has come at just the right time. We're just coming out of winter, but being the UK it's nearly always cool enough for soup.

Husband took me to see Iron Man last night and we LOVED it too! Yep, Pepper's dresses were terrific (though I didn't like the blue evening gown!), but did you see her heels? I'm thinking she's the real action hero, running in those things!

We saw the movie, too. I loved it! We always stay for the credits, so we saw the last scene. I thought it was really great fun. Downey has such an edge of humor and such great deadpan. He really is one of the best actors out there. Jeff Bridges was excellent. That last scene before the credits was great.

My husband went to see it with a group of his friends and he's been wanting me to take our oldest daughter and go see it. Now I have TWO people telling me it's worth $19.50, I guess I'll end up caving and going to the theatre. :)

We had free movie passes so my husband, myself and my 13-year-old daughter went to the 10:40 showing(yes, PM) and we had the best time! Great movie and since we waited until it had been out a while PLUS went to the LATE LATE show it was fairly empty. Great movie and a great time!

Yes! Saw IRONMAN. Ironically, I saw it the day after I watched a DVD of Becoming Jane. Seeing them side-by-side like that provided an interesting angle on chick flicks vs. guy movies and I wrote my Saturday post with the title, If I Am 'Becoming Jane' then is He 'Ironman'?. Many interesting discoveries in the viewing and the writing about womanhood, manhood and the marriage of the two.

I agree about the humor and that it was worth the money to see on the big screen. Paul was going to see it with the guys, but I'm glad I went.

This looked and sounded so good, I went out yesterday to get all that I needed and made it for my family tonight for dinner. I have to say this was so good! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us!!

I made this tonight, and it was so, so good! The only thing I did differently from your recipe was to leave out the salt. With the salt from the canned beans, and the chicken broth, I figured there was plenty of salt.

I made it vegetarian, served with the cilantro and lime juice. Mmmmm, can't leave either of those out! And I served it with pita bread on the side. YUMMY! Thanks for the great recipe!